funkyrobot

He was part of the reason we barely had a sniff of the ball in the 2nd half. Looked knackered and no closing down.

He looks after the ball well and can win a free-kick or 3. Sometimes he wins them when actually trying to stay on his feet and play might be more beneficial to us though! - We aren’t particularly good at attacking set pieces! He doesn’t press well though. He goes through the motions at times, as if his closing down is blocked by a lorry load of spilt syrup.

Seems to suffer with the same heading issues as Vestergaard. Gets beaten aerially a lot despite being tall. I’m also not convinced with his passing. He’s obviously faster than Vesty but certainly not at the same level as the Dane with the ball at his feet. He’s miles ahead of Coady though! Tbf it should be Vesty competing with him when fit but I’ve heard on the grapevine that Cooper doesn’t get on with Vestergaard.

He looked slow and lacked physicality, two flaws that don’t help a player when their touch deserts them like it did with Edouard today 😂😬

The depressing thing for me is Cooper will only ever play one winger. His obsession with his method of creating the central box of four has to include a wide player so he’ll go with Buonanotte or Ayew as the non winger when he plays Mavididi or BDCR or Ayew as the non winger when he plays Fatawu. They’ll very rarely play together. For me, this system makes it easier to defend. You know where the wide danger is and can overload in this area as the spare attacker becomes one of the the two fullbacks and neither are usually likely to have a day like JJ did last week. This is in part because neither are particularly skilful attackers and also because they have significant defensive duties as they play in a flat back 4. Today he seemed to play a 442 but even then preferred a non winger and a pragmatic 2nd forward foil in Ayew. This when we are at home against Bournemouth. He could’ve played Fatawu wide right, with Buonanotte central behind Vardy.🤷🏻‍♂️

Surprised by the ratings. I thought Ndidi was better than Skipp today. Skipp was less effectively defensively and bar a nice run in the second half didn’t offer the creativity that you’d hope he would offer.

Love to see the stats that show Reid did well. He lost the ball twice trying to do a silly turn in dangerous positions and didn’t offer the threat going the other way that Fatawu did.

BDCR walks into the Rhodri or De Bruyne position at Man City for starters. 👀

How long is Cooper going to stick with this lob sided system? Marks Mavididi out of the game, putting the entire creative onus on a young number 10 and our extra attacking player is a fullback playing in a back 4 who is expected to be able to cover defensively and be an attacking wingback. Justin isn’t going to score worldies week in week out. Most of the time he’s going to be stuck running his arse off between two roles. He shouldn’t be one of our main attacking hopes, nor should Kristiansen when it was his turn at the start of the season..

Aren’t all strikers better when they are played in a front two though? There’s another player closer, occupying a centre back and providing a foil. It invariably means though that there are less numbers in the key midfield area and this compromise seems to be generally not risked anymore. The best strikers can step up and make it work as a single striker. If Daka can only play in a two then he’s not got the attributes to ever be a good striker in the Premier League or even in The Championship.

Daka’s mainly mythological pace is continually pulled out as a reason to hope he’ll come good. Whilst it’s clear that he’s been rapid during games from the Google evidence etc, it’s very very rare that we actually see it successfully used in a match. He rarely seems to outpace his centre half, maybe because he’s easily physically bullied or because his movement always seems to put him step behind his opponent- or maybe it’s the fact that when he runs with the ball it’s like watching someone trying to dribble a balloon at a party.

Not sure what authority you’ve got to tell us Moyes doesn’t want the job tbf. Are you a Moyes ITK specialist? Personally I’m not sure he’s the best option when Cooper is inevitably sacked anyway

It’s all very well praising Cannon for scoring 4 goals tonight but could he do it on a cold wet Wednesday night in Stoke? 👀

I just don’t get Cooper’s system. It requires an almost superhuman fullback who is both able to defend in a 4 but also vacates this position and suddenly attacks like a wingback! Seems much more of a stretch to ask a fullback to perform this role than it was to ask a fullback to slot in as a deep lying centre midfielder in possession like Enzo had Ricardo playing last year. Certainly way more yards to cover, and much more likely to be exposed when the opponents counterattack. Enzo’s system allowed two wingers and still employed a midfield box using 2 number 8’s. Cooper’s system uses only one specialist winger and makes our attack lob sided and our defence lob sided too. The lack of 2 number 8’s also makes the team very reliant on a number 10 and unless they are top level players in that role (e.g. a Maddison) they again can be targeted as opponents know they are the only midfield creative source. I’d argue that we do have creative midfielders (El and Buonanotte) that much more fit the profile of number 8’s. Busy and creative but not yet at the class that they could dominate the game like a true 10 at premier league level.

By all accounts Ian Holloway is one of the nicest guys you could meet tbf. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Mavididi as a wing back? 😬

Where’s the logic in keeping a manager in a job he’s clearly not able to do purely to make a stand against the sacking culture though? His decision making and in game management isn’t suddenly going to have a complete reversal. This is what we will get with Cooper, he’s displaying exactly the same traits that he did at Forest.

Not all opinion. Cooper isn’t playing his best 11. That’s a fact. His best team would include both Mavididi and Fatawu and would always utilise a creative central midfielder. His selections are based on pragmatism. That pragmatism has helped Cooper to a remarkable 19 consecutive premier league games WITHOUT a win. If they recruit a better manager than Cooper then they will get better results with the same squad , Enzo is a better manager than Cooper. He would’ve got more points with the same squad. They need to recruit a manager with at least that level of ability, irrespective of the style of play and then results will improve.

Cooper is not doing his best with a terrible hand. He’s not playing his best 11, he’s playing players out of position, his tactics are pragmatic to the point that we can’t create chances and he’s created a lack of belief in the players in their own ability. He’s currently doing a bad job with a distinctly average hand.

The Cherries are battering The Saints but it could easily be us on Saturday. Player for player how many Leicester lads would get in the Bournemouth team? If we are being honest probably only Mads instead of Kepa? Could be painful tbh. Cooper will probably deploy BDCR and Ayew on the wings and try and shithouse one of his trademark pragmatic narrow losses or, if we are really lucky, an undeserved draw.

Ipswich are better in every way than we are at the moment. Better coach. More pace, more aggression, way more belief and with a reliable, technically very good and physical goalscorer in Delap.

Gave the ball away for their 4th goal after not tracking Trossard for their 2nd. Fair to say he’s not had a great start to the season. He can do it at this level though - multiple England caps demonstrate this. Cooper needs to adjust his midfield set up to better suit his game as we don’t have many alternative options.

He’s got a 3 year deal.

There’s nothing in BDCR’s performances for us and tbh in his limited starts for Fulham last season that would suggest he has anything to offer at this level anymore. At this stage of his career based on the last 12 months he just looks lightweight, not particularly fast, not overly skilful and not great defensively. I’m not sure what he brings to this fight other than making up the numbers (very expensively) in training.

Winks is suited to the single pivot role, the team are better suited to it. In a double pivot it’s just not working. He looks frustrated, he’s losing the ball regularly and the game’s passing him by. Him and Skipp look static together and it’s no better when he’s paired with Ndidi. Our number 10 options ahead that the double pivot enables (Ndidi 👀, Buonanotte or EL) despite great endeavour aren’t really the creative game changers at this level that make a double defensive pivot effective IMO. Maybe in the future the two youngsters will, but it’s a big ask at the moment. I’ve not seen anything yet that indicates Winks has a grasp of the role he’s meant to be doing behind. He looks bewildered and frustrated.